History of the Jews in Lithuania

Panevėžys Celebrates 150th Anniversary of Birth of Doctor Shakhnel Avrahom Meir

Margaritos mokykla

Panevėžys city mayor Rytis Račkauskas attended a conference to unveil a memorial plaque to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of public figure and doctor Shakhnel Avrahom Meir. The project was financed by the Goodwill Fund and was supported by the Panevėžys Jewish Community and the municipality.

“The great contribution made by Dr. Meir to the life of the city is undisputed among residents. The doctor set up a hospital, clinics for children and adults and a tuberculosis dispensary. It is difficult to list all his accomplishments. But one must be mentioned: his concern for people. Meir dedicated himself to children from poor families and never discriminated against patients based on wealth or ethnicity. To him they were all the same, they were all important to him. The 150th anniversary of his birth compels us to remember and commemorate this notable person. I sincerely thank the organizers of this event for this initiative,” mayor Račkauskas told the audience.

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Celebrating 150th Birthday of Panevėžys Doctor Shakhnel Avrahom Meir

This year marks 150 years since the birth and 85 years since the death of Dr. Meir.

A ceremony to honor the memory of Dr. Shakhnel Avrahom Meir will be held in Panevėžys, Lithuania on November 13, the famous Lithuania doctor’s hometown.

He studied medicine at Moscow University and began his medical practice in Chernigov guberniya in the Ukraine before returning to Lithuania in 1891, where he first set up practice in Pasvalys and then moved back to Panevėžys in 1914. He had a reputation for selflessness and devoted all his time and energy to healing everyone who needed help. He improved his skills by working in clinics abroad and kept up with the latest advances in medicine, applying them at home. The Jewish Hospital was built and opened in Panevėžys in 1919 on his initiative. It served people of all ethnicities.

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Lithuanian Jewish Community Responds to Report on Jonas Noreika

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The Lithuanian Jewish Community responds to a report presented by the Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of the Residents of Lithuania about the activity of Jonas Noreika in Nazi-occupied Lithuania during World War II. The report is available in Lithuanian on their website:

http://genocid.lt/UserFiles/File/Pazymos/201510_noreika_pazyma01.pdf

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Lithuanian Jewish Community
Pylimo street no. 4, LT-01117 Vilnius, tel.: (8~5) 261 30 03, fax: (8~5) 2127915, email: info@lzb.lt

November 6, 2015

To: Teresa Birutė Burauskaitė, director
Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of the Residents of Lithuania
Didžioji street no. 17/1, LT-01128 Vilnius

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Two Steps Forward, One Back

Two Steps Forward, One Back
by Geoff Vasil

Readers of the Lithuanian Jewish Community website might have been surprised yesterday by a news item appearing there in which Jonas Noreika was absolved, seemingly, of complicity in the Holocaust. Noreika is one of those names which lives on in infamy among scholars of the Lithuanian Holocaust but proffered as an anti-Soviet hero by Lithuanian nationalists. The intent of the LJC, of course, was merely to report the Lithuanian news to Jews here and abroad, and not to white-wash Noreika in any way. The news item would not have been surprising even a few years ago, but now it comes as a shock exactly because Lithuanian society has moved forward so rapidly in coming to terms with the horrible loss to the country known as the Holocaust.

In summary, a Lithuanian state institution, the Center for Research on the Genocide and Resistance of the Residents of Lithuania, charged with sorting out history, issued a politicized report claiming Noreika was only involved in isolating Jews during World War II, not murdering them. The report came in response to a joint call by well known figures in Lithuania, including Tomas Venclova, to remove a plaque honoring Noreika from the wall of the library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences in Vilnius, a move which the LJC has long championed.

The document released this week cautions Noreika’s actions “cannot be judged categorically.”

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LJC Chairwoman on Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė’s Visit to Israel

I was included in the delegation which went together with Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaitė to Israel. As the chairwoman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community I participated in everything and I can say the visit was historic. Despite the tension in the air because of the terrorist attacks by Palestinians, the leaders of Israel found the time to meet with the Lithuanian president on her working visit and to discuss the most urgent issues in regional security and bilateral cooperation. The Lithuanian president also discussed measures for strengthening Israeli and Lithuanian ties with Israeli president Reuven Rivlin, who emphasized his Litvak roots. The two leaders also spoke about the situation of the Jewish community and the commemoration of Holocaust victims in Lithuania. The Lithuanian president said Jews had contributed very much to the establishment of the Lithuanian state and that the two countries could combine forces in creating their future and prosperity. I remember moving moments when Litvaks in Israel met the president with tears in their eyes and how they spoke about the most beautiful times of their lives in Lithuania. These were times of youth, of the struggle for Jewish identity and for freedom. For them, Lithuania is the land of their forefathers from the time of Vytautas the Great, the land they call home and which they often recall even now.

Before her meeting with the president of Israel, the Lithuanian head of state visited the Yad Vashem museum to commemorate Holocaust victims and planted an olive tree in the Garden of the Righteous among Nations there. In her meeting with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Lithuanian president said could help Lithuania directly with security. “Israel is prepared to help Lithuania directly in the sphere of security: by training our military personnel, in the area of cyber-security and can even organize courses for our personal protection.”

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Rothschild Foundation Holds International Conference on Jewish Cemetery Protection in Vilnius

The Rothschild Foundation (Hanadiv) Europe held a conference to discuss Jewish cemetery heritage protection issues in Vilnius from October 25 to 28.

The conference, “A Cross-Disciplinary Seminar on European Jewish Cemeteries: Theory, Policy, Management and Dissemination,” with professionals from different European counties working in the field of Jewish Cemeteries including, scholars, genealogists, Jewish communities and federations, religious leaders, NGOs and policy makers, was designed to bring together a group of experts with 3 core aims:

• To review achievements since the conference on Jewish Immovable Heritage in Krakow 2013. The conference will provide a chance to conduct an appraisal of what has been done in the field until now. Organizations shared their most important projects, including new trends such as the development of technological tools to assist in the discovery and research of cemeteries.

• To explore important issues through a series of roundtable and panel conversations on the central questions and topics affecting the field.

• To encourage future collaboration between participating organizations, exploring how they can work together, encourage cross-border opportunities and consider further strategic cooperation.

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Memorial Plaque Commemorating Bluma Katz Unveiled

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Moisejus Preisas and Fania Brancovskaja lay a wreath at the Menorah statue in Švenčionys

Every year at the beginning of October a small group of people gather at the Menorah statue in the Švenčionys City Park who remember what happened there from 1941 to 1943.

This year Švenčionys Jewish Community chairman Moisiejus Šapiro began the meeting and presented Nalšia Regional History Museum historian Nadežda Spiridonovienė, who spoke about historical events in Švenčionys and how Jewish settlement in Lithuania was a result of tragedies in Western and Central Europe in the 19th century.

“Lithuania was an agrarian country and belonged to the large non-industrial part of Russia. Most of the country people were Catholic Lithuanians, Belarusians and Poles. This was the main factor in the locals’ relationship with Jews. To Lithuanians, Belarusians and Poles, it seemed the Jew was clever and wise because of his many talents. Jews were small businessmen and craftsmen who traveled around and were much valued for spreading information as bearers of news. There were about 4,500 Jews living in Švenčionys then, they established an herbal medicine factory and had leather-working workshops in the city center. The hard work, initiative and expertise of Jewish business people expressed themselves in all areas of production.

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Lithuanian President: Litvaks Played Special Role in Establishment of Lithuania and Israel

VILNIUS, October 21, BNS–Litvaks, or Jews originating from Lithuania, played a key role in establishing both Lithuania and Israel, Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaitė said at the opening of the World Litvak Forum in Israel.

She said Litvaks are among the most active Israeli public, business, cultural and political figures who have worked effectively in all the parliaments of democratic Lithuania, both in the interwar period and after the country regained independence in 1990.

“Litvaks have always been among the most active Israeli public, business, cultural and political figures, they still are and will continue to be so,” the Lithuanian president said in a press release published by the presidential press service.

She applauded the Litvak contribution to the Lithuanian economy, culture and science.

President Grybauskaitė said Lithuania and Israel cherish democracy, human rights and a culture of tolerance, and that world-wide challenges including terrorism and aggression are problems the two countries share.

According to a census in 201ą, 3,000 Jews lived in Lithuania. In Israel the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry calculates there are about 200,000 Litvaks and their descendants, the world’s largest Litvak community.

BNS

Taboo against Death

New book entitled Price of Concord/Memoirs;Portraits of Artists; Interactions of Cultures by prof. Markas Petuchauskas („Versus aureus“ Publishers, 2015; www.versus.lt; info@versus.lt) is available to the readers.

Please find the extracts about prominent Litvak artists from the book.

 

Samuel Bak, with whom I keep corresponding, told me that he had seen a mono-performance by Chaje Rozental’s daughter Naava Piatka dedicated to her mother. He liked the performance. I thought then that the transference of the performance to the stage in Vilnius might be a good idea. I started corresponding with Naava Piatka. We discussed the questions pertaining to her arrival to the land of her parents as well as those concerning the preparation of the performance. Both in the States and in London, Naava performed in English. It took me a long time to talk her into rehearsing the performance in Yiddish, a language posing difficulties for the actress. Eventually I managed to convince her that on the stage of the Vilnius Ghetto Theatre one must use Yiddish. On the 24th of September 2003, I organized the first night of the play dedicated to Chaje Rozental entitled Better Don’t Talk. By extending the Art Days dedicated to the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the Vilnius Ghetto theatre, we also marked the 60th anniversary of this phenomenon of Lithuanian Jerusalem and the destruction of the Vilnius ghetto.

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 The Precedent of the Binkis Family

New book entitled Price of Concord/Memoirs;Portraits of Artists; Interactions of Cultures by prof. Markas Petuchauskas („Versus aureus“ Publishers, 2015; www.versus.lt; info@versus.lt) is available to the readers.

Please find the extracts about prominent Litvak artists from the book.

I had already written a review about the play Dress Rehearsal by Kazys Binkis. It was stage director Henrikas Vancevičius who for the first time dared to save that play from complete forgetfulness by staging it. By publishing my article in the newspaper Tiesa, run by the Central Committee of the Communist Party, I wanted to support Binkis’ European level play, which was a new word in our dramaturgy. That was the play which, unused, had been lying in the drawer for a very long time, and which had given lots of doubts to our men in power.

When I proof-read the text, prepared by the publishing house, I felt sick. The main emphases of the review had been changed for another text, underlining the professional limitations of the play and of its production as well. The emphasis was laid on Binkis’ inability to differentiate between the right kind of wars and the wrong ones. All of that had been flavoured with usual Soviet phraseology. I was enraged, and I told them I was retrieving my article, because the present text was reversing my review and was putting it from head to foot.

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Alexander Macht Chess Tournament at Lithuanian Jewish Community Sunday

The Alexander Macht Chess Tournament will be held at the Lithuanian Jewish Community at Pylimo street No. 4 at 6:00 P.M. on Sunday, October 18. The tournament was organized by the LJC and the elite chess and checkers clubs Rositsan and Maccabi.

Boris Rositsan gave the LJC website a small interview in the run-up to the tournament where, he said, at least 30 people are planning to play. Special medals have been ordered for this competition.

What does the name Alexander Macht signify?

Boris Rositsan: Alexander Macht is an historical figure and a very important person in the history of Lithuanian chess as well as Jewish. We cannot forget this sort of person, so we are continuing the tradition of tournaments. In interwar Lithuania he was Lithuanian champion seven times over. Macht lived in Kaunas and was director of the Jewish People’s Bank. He went to Israel in 1935 and directed the famous Bank Leumi there. No one wrote, said or remembered anything at all about this great chess player during the Soviet period. We have prepared a program dedicated to Litvak chess players. After we presented our book “Žydai Lietuvos šachmatų istorijoje” [“Jews in Lithuanian Chess History”] at the beginning of this year, LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky asked us why weren’t continuing that history. I would like to say that we are preparing to do just that in cooperation with the community. We are holding two tournaments, this is for adults, but if strong young chess players come forward, we will include them. On October 31st there will be a tournament dedicated to the memory of Itzhak Vistinietzki [Isakas Vistaneckis] and children will play in that. We are inviting children aged five and over to come and learn to play chess. We have student groups at the community for the ages of 5, 6, 7… and 13 years old. Also, elderly and retired LJC members are coming to us. Fishman is helping me with the training. Serious work is taking place, non-commercial, I really love chess and I want to revive the LJC chess movement.

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First Chairwoman of Švenčionys Jewish Community Remembered

A memorial plaque has gone up on the building at Vilniaus street No. 5 in Bluma Katz’s hometown of Švenčionys. Bluma Katz was the first chairwoman of the Švenčionys Region Jewish Community. City and regional administration leaders, Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, deputy Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Yehuda Gidron and local residents gathered to remember her at the ceremony to unveil the new plaque.

Katzs was born in Švenčionys in 1913, studied at a Jewish gymnasium and continued her education in Vilnius where she was an active participant in Jewish life. Her teachers included well-known Jewish scholars and writers such as Max Weinreich and Zalman Reyzen, among others. She moved to Russia with her future husband Sh. Yavich. They were both arrested there in 1937, with Bluma Katz sentenced to ten years at a Stalinist gulag in Kolyma. She returned, remarried to her second husband Segalovich, to her hometown, Švenčionys, in 1947. She completed nursing courses and worked for the next 42 years at the city hospital. After Lithuanian independence Katz formed and led the Švenčionys Jewish Community and was noted for her sincere and personal concern for every member of the community. Katz’s memoirs have been published in Lithuania and the West and she always consented cheerfully to meet students from around the world coming to Vilnius to study Yiddish. Katz also attended Yiddish workshops at Oxford University in Great Britain.

When Will Lithuania Improve Its Holocaust Reputation?

October 11, 2015. The Švenčionys Jewish Community commemorated Holocaust victims at the Menorah statue. Švenčionys city leaders, Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky, Vilnius Religious Jewish Community chairman Simas Levinas, deputy Israeli ambassador Yehuda Gidron, Dr. Dovid Katz and local residents all attended the sad ceremony. Švenčionys Jewish Community chairman Moisiejus Šapiro thanked everyone for coming despite the cold weather to remember those who were murdered. Kaunas ghetto inmate Moisiejus Preisas and Vilnius ghetto prisoner Fania Brancovskaja laid flowers next to the statue. A representative from the local Nalšia regional history museum spoke about the history of the city of Švenčionys, contributions made by Jews to the growth of the city and the tragedy of the Holocaust.

The ceremony to commemorate the dead continued at a mass murder site where eight thousand Jews were murdered in the Švenčionys Forest. Deputy Israeli ambassador to Lithuania Gidron, after hearing eight thousand Jews were murdered at the site, and that six million in total were murdered over a few years, said it is difficult to comprehend those numbers. “I am glad the Švenčionys municipality is planning to erect a memorial plaque with the names of the Jews murdered next to the Menorah statue in the former ghetto territory. This is important not just for each of us, but also for everyone who lives in Švenčionys,” he said.

Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky said: “We should remember not just the names of those who were murdered, but the names of those who murdered as well. This is necessary not just for condemnation or revenge, because those who are some still alive are very old, while others have passed on and stand in the court of the Almighty. I think it is necessary for all of us, their inheritors, so that our neighbors might know by whose hand the most horrific crime of the 20th century was committed. Because only when everyone whose hands were sullied with the blood of innocent victims is named and condemned, even if only in our thoughts, only then can we start to hope Lithuania might rid itself of its shameful title as a ‘nation of Jew-shooters’,” she said.

Vilnius Choral Synagogue cantor Shmuel Yatom said Kaddish for the dead.

Monument to Jews of Šeduva Unveiled

Monument to Jews of Šeduva Unveiled

Lithuanian prime minister Algirdas Butkevičius, representatives of the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, foreign ambassadors to Lithuania, Radviliškis regional administration representatives and Jews from all over the world as well as local residents attended a ceremony to commemorate the murdered Jews of Šeduva, Lithuania, and a ceremony to kick off the Lost Shtetl Šeduva Jewish memorial project.

More photos here

They visited the restored Jewish cemetery and three mass murder sites as well as attending the ceremony for the unveiling of a monument to the Jews of Šeduva in the town center. Under private initiatives architectural compositions by the sculptor Romuoldas Kvintas now greet visitors to two mass murder sites in the Liaudiškiai forest and one in the Pakuteniai forest.

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Litvak Life before the Holocaust: An Exhibit of the Personal Collection of Michailas Duškesas

The Antanas Žmuidzinavičius Museum of Works and Collections in Kaunas (Vlado Putvinskio street No. 64) is hosting an exhibit of original documents from the personal collection of Michailas Duškesas on Jewish life in Lithuania before the Holocaust.

This unique exhibit is being shown for the first time in Kaunas. It is dedicated to the Jews of Lithuania who were murdered in the Holocaust. A wide range of archival material, photographs, original documents and postcards show Jewish life in Kaunas and throughout Lithuania at the end of the 19th and early 20th century. Jewish activity is presented under the principles of mutual aid, sponsorship and welfare. The exhibit features notable personalities, religious organizations, banks, agencies and credit unions.

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Lithuanian Jewish Community Staff Pitch In to Clean Up Old Jewish Cemetery in Užupis Neighborhood

A group of volunteers from among the personnel of the Lithuanian Jewish Community gathered October 8 at the old Jewish cemetery in the Vilnius neighborhood of Užupis. Although not that many people turned out, those who did put their backs into it, hauling off brush and saplings. Volunteer director Juozas Labokas of the Regional Park’s Office of Inspector told volunteers of the history of the site and called for more volunteers and volunteer actions so the refurbishment of the cemetery could continue through the winter months. Strong individuals are sought especially, since many of the trees being removed require heavy lifting.

The site located along Olandų street next to the Soviet-era funeral home facility there was a Jewish cemetery where some 70,000 people were buried. The 11-hectare cemetery now falls under the care of the Pavilniai Regional Park. It has been completely overgrown by weeds, bushes and small trees. Now enough undergrowth has been cleared away to reveal some of the surviving Jewish headstones.

The cemetery was the main Jewish burial site in Vilnius from 1831 to 1946. The cemetery was destroyed beginning in 1965.

Currently the Municipal Works and Transportation Department of the Vilnius municipality is undertaking work to refurbish the graveyard. Trees are being removed to provide an aesthetic view of the grave monuments. Currently work is on-going in 4 hectares and volunteers are sorely needed.

The Pavilniai Regional Park webpage says:

The more people who step forward to contribute to putting the old Jewish cemetery in order, the more quickly the territory will be liberated from the brush. We hope for your reply and await your telephone call or email.

telephone: Vida at 8 614 92 522
email: parkas@botanika.lt

Lithuanian Holocaust Remembrance Day Marked in Batakiai

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Lithuanian Holocaust Remembrance Day was observed in the village of Batakiai, Lithuania, on September 23, 2015. A new monument to Holocaust victims was unveiled there.

The event at the Batakiai House of Culture began with a literary musical composition dedicated to the memory of Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Batakiai High School students and teachers performed the composition which was a sensitive treatment of the Holocaust. Tauragė Regional Administration director Sigitas Mičiulis, deputy director Aušrinė Norkienė and Klaipėda Jewish Community chairman Feliksas Puzemskis spoke at the event.

Members of the audience at the event went to the mass murder site in Gryblaukis Forest. Regional administrator Sigitas Mičiulis and Klaipėda Jewish Community chairman Feliksas Puzemskis unveiled the monument to seven Jews of Batakiai murdered in 1941. A moment of silence was held, flowers were laid at the monument and candles lit. Another nearby mass murder site was visited after the ceremony where about 1,800 Jewish women and children were murdered. A moment of silence was held there, too, and flowers and candles were placed by the second monument.

Klaipėda Jewish Community News

On September 25 the Klaipėda Jewish Community visited Švėkšna for the “Let’s Save the Švėkšna Synagogue” event. A guide provided an excellent tour and told of Švėkšna, its history and important sites. Volunteers took members to the old Jewish cemetery and mass murder sites. The Klaipėda delegation met with the group from Kaunas and were treated to the songs of Vitalijus Neugasimovas.

Members of the Klaipėda Jewish Community along with the rest of the audience were much impressed with the visual presentation on the history of the Švėkšna Synagogue.

Even so, members on the return trip wondered if the money hadn’t been better spent repairing the synagogue roof.

Snapshots here:
https://www.facebook.com/klaipedajewish